For a writing strategy, I would like to try Discovery Writing, explained by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Donald M. Murray, in an effort to show students that writing is thinking.
I would be careful with this strategy, however, because not all students might have enough background knowledge and self-discipline, as Murray obviously has, to simply launch themselves into writing.
I am wary of the notion of aimless free-writing for adolescents, but I do want to promote the idea of teaching a love for words and occasionally letting the language lead thinking.
I would use notecards, as Murray suggests, but I would also give students a small idea to help them begin writing. I might play the Fleetwood Mac song "Storms" by Stevie Nicks as the students enter the room to begin class. On the board I would write the lines "Never have I been a blue calm sea/ I have always been a storm."
I would ask the students to begin writing by filling in the blanks: Never have I been … I have always been…. I would ask them to write, to continue to fill the cards and rework their words, trying to follow their own ideas, letting the words lead them.
Writing Strategies
Discovery Writing
For a writing strategy, I would like to try Discovery Writing, explained by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Donald M. Murray, in an effort to show students that writing is thinking.I would be careful with this strategy, however, because not all students might have enough background knowledge and self-discipline, as Murray obviously has, to simply launch themselves into writing.
I am wary of the notion of aimless free-writing for adolescents, but I do want to promote the idea of teaching a love for words and occasionally letting the language lead thinking.
I would use notecards, as Murray suggests, but I would also give students a small idea to help them begin writing. I might play the Fleetwood Mac song "Storms" by Stevie Nicks as the students enter the room to begin class. On the board I would write the lines "Never have I been a blue calm sea/ I have always been a storm."
I would ask the students to begin writing by filling in the blanks: Never have I been … I have always been…. I would ask them to write, to continue to fill the cards and rework their words, trying to follow their own ideas, letting the words lead them.